The arrival of my ticket to the Stargate Convention next month made me realize that THIS IS REAL!!! I am actually going to go to a Stargate Convention. The ticket is beautiful!! I have row G seat 2. Are any of you guys close to that? I'm so excited and nervous and happy!!!

Exciting thing number two for the day is I bought a veiled chameleon. We've been watching him all summer at the pet store and he went on sale for 1/2 off - so we snagged him. He was beginning to look kind of bad - his color is dark and his ribs are showing. I think it's from being in a tank with no UV light for months. We've had him under a UV all day and he's already lightening up. He's so sweet - just crawls up your arm and sits on your shoulder. And you should see him eat crickets - flips out that LONG tongue and snags them from several inches away. AWESOME!! I've already ordered him a large screen cage, so he'll be living in style soon. Between him and Mushu (bearded dragon), the kids are going to love my room this year. Now we just need to think of a cool name for the chameleon.

I just saw an advertisement for Castle saying it would be returning this fall. I'm so happy. I watched it last season and really fell in love with it. It's not SGA, mind you, but it helps take away a little of the sting. Now if Joe would just get himself into a series in a supercool role with lots of action and danger and some occasional h/c and/or angst, I would have it made in the shade.

You know, in a "perfect" world, SGA would still be on (with Carson and Elizabeth and writing like the first couple of seasons). I'd still have SG-1 (with O'Neill) and Farscape and Firefly. Is it sad that all my favorite shows I want back are science fiction? It seems like shows I like that aren't scifi go on forever until they get into boring stuff and I quit watching, whereas the scifi ones get cut off almost before they get started (except for SG-1, which went the way of the others after RDA left).

Just my personal preferences.

Title: Bugophobia
Author: titan5
Rating: PG
Characters: John, Rodney, team, Carson, Elizabeth
Timeline: Takes place in mid-season 3 because I wanted Carson and Elizabeth to be there.
Summary: A bug encounter during a mission gone south causes a rift between John and Rodney.

( Bugophobia )

It's 100 degrees outside and June's not even over. This could be one hot summer!!

Why you ask? Because I just signed up for the SGA Big Bang. I apparently do not learn from past mistakes. I just keep thinking, "I've got all summer. I can do this." Then there's that nagging, slightly AU story I've been considering for a while now that would be perfect for this thing. I guess I just figured, what the heck! I was very excited about the prospect of reading all those stories until I realized the vast majority of them are slash - HUGELY disappointing. What's wrong with good old fashioned gen? Since that's all I write and apparently the huge majority of this fandom is into slash, I'm shocked anyone even bothers to read my stuff at all. One of these days I'll post a story and just get silence and maybe the sound of crickets (LOL).

On a more personal note, my youngest daughter got her hair cut last week and donated 22 inches to Locks of Love. She went from hair to her waist to hair to her shoulders. We all love it - including her. I think she was tired of brushing it all the time.

Back on the ground and at home, a good combination. I survived flying - twice! Reno is awesome. After two weeks of almost non-stop rain, we flew to Reno and six days of sun! I love the mountains all around the city - that is just too cool. Why, oh why was I raised in the flatlands - so boring! And Lake Tahoe is BEAUTIFUL!!! I think I could be happy living out west. A girl from our region (not my school unfortunately) won a second place Air Force Award and I think her dad said she got $1500 with that. I was gone for my sixth grade daughter competing in the regional elementary school yesterday and this morning, but she won third place in her category. So all is good and I have a LOT of reading to catch up on while I satisfy my internet withdrawal.

Headed for Reno, Nevada in the morning for a week of International Science and Engineering Fair. The hotel has internet if you care to take out a bank loan to pay for a week of it, which I don't, so probably no internet next week. I might get one day because I have to send in a grant report by Friday and I don't see any other way to do it, but for most of the week, I'll be out of touch. See you guys in a week, if I don't die from withdrawal and manage to survive the plane trip (I HATE flying - scares the living daylights out of me).

Title: A Dragon’s Tale
Author: Titan5
Spoilers:Brief mention of scattered events up through Search and Rescue.
Summary: When John gets separated from his team, he meets some interesting wildlife.
Author’s Note: This is for Fran, who sent my youngest child a ton of cool stuff from England, making her “country” project the very best one (not that I’m biased in any way).

( A Dragon's Tale Part 2 )

Title: A Dragon’s Tale
Author: Titan5
Spoilers:Brief mention of scattered events up through Search and Rescue.
Summary: When John gets separated from his team, he meets some interesting wildlife.
Author’s Note: This is for Fran, who sent my youngest child a ton of cool stuff from England, making her “country” project the very best one (not that I’m biased in any way). It seems to be too long, so I'm dividing it into two parts.

( A Dragon's Tale Part 1 )

While watching a room full of tenth-graders take an end-of-course exam and trying desperately not to die from boredom, my muse totally tackled me to the floor. I just kept wandering around the room mentally working on this story until I've worked the whole thing out in my head and now I'm going to have to type it up, in spite of the fact that I DO NOT HAVE TIME to be writing fanfiction right now. I have a final to give in my college class and senior grades are due next week and I leave for ISEF in Reno in less than two weeks. What is wrong with me????? Never mind, I know what's wrong - it's called addiction, or sometimes obsession. Maybe I could write up a short fic. Yeah, right, because that always works so well (insert sarcastic snort here).

OH, and you know how sometimes this one scene from a story you read ages ago kind of comes back to haunt you and you want to read it again, but you can't remember where it's from? Doing that too. I was remembering this scene where John had been sent to the Athosian village to recover from something I think. They sent him so he would actually relax, but he got the impression they didn't want him around and was kind of miffed at all of them. I have no idea what story that came from, but suddenly got the urge to read that part and what led up to it again. Crazy me. I've been doing some rereading of favorites lately - you know, late at night when I should be grading papers or going to bed. Back to that obsession thing again.

On a good note, IT'S FINALLY WARM!!!!!!!!!! (oops, I probably shouldn't have said that out loud).

I'm slow. I JUST discovered that Joe will be at a convention in August in Chicago. I CAN DRIVE THERE! That means I could actually afford to go!!! Is anyone else going? The only hang-up is that I want one of the gold passes and there are only 100. I'll have to finish paying for my daughter's trip to Space Camp before I can cough up the money for the ticket and I'm terrified they'll all be gone. Maybe a third job??????

I have a new appreciation for electricity. And I feel guilty for saying that because there are lots and lots of people who still don't have power around here and many of them won't for a long time. If you are interested, ice sucks in a major way. Two nights and one day of almost continuous freezing rain. Sure, it's pretty when the sun hits an inch or so of it wrapped around every surface in sight, but it's a little scary to lie in a completely dark room listening to trees snap all around your house. Hmmm, gives me a story idea - is that bad?

I have lots of emails and stories to catch up on and I'm just hoping the internet stays on this time. It came on twice before and blinked out before I had a chance to do much. I have to admit I'm looking forward to reading some, although I had a lot more time last week when we were sitting around watching the walls with flashlights. Ah well, at least we were warm - thank goodness for the wood stove. If the internet stays on and I can remember how, I'll post a pic or two.

Well, after being depressed all day, I'm even more depressed now. I keep trying to convince myself that this is all for the best - the writers are screwing things up lately, John has become a secondary character in many episodes this season since it's apparently become the Jennifer Keller Show, and surely someone will grab him up to star in some really wonderful show as a strong lead with h/c potential. It's not working. I still feel like I just lost my best friend and I can't seem to stop the sniffling, eye-wiping thing, no matter how much I try. I keep remembering all the wonderful episodes and the great moments across the seasons. I'm going to miss the characters and Atlantis and the stargate and the messes they got themselves into. I'll even miss Todd.

I have to admit that the ending of their final show made me even more depressed (like we don't know what the IOA would do in that situation). That's two sucky endings in a row (well, at least from my POV). Plus, they end with a plug for Stargate Universe, you know, the show they booted SGA for. What a kick in the gut. And I need to go cry some more. Today really sucks!!

I'm playing with my journal, so don't be surprised if it changes around in the next few days. I decided to see what I could do with it as is since I spent the money I was thinking of putting towards a paid account. So staying with free for now. Since I'm computer-challenged, there's no telling what I'll end up doing to this thing.

I'm once again amazed at the fragile nature of life. A guy in his early twenties that my daughter used to work with recently died. He was wrestling around with some of his friends and hit his head. I'm not sure of the details, but I think he developed a hematoma (not sure where). I don't think he ever even regained consciousness. It was just a silly accident when a bunch of friends were clowning around acting silly. I don't even know the family and I want to go hug them. I can't even imagine losing a child, much less like that. So preventable if only they'd known or been more careful. Makes you really stop and think about how quickly and unexpectedly things can happen.

Still reeling from Vegas and the goodness that is Joe Flanigan. I think when the series . . . you know . . . next week, I'll go back to season one and start at the beginning, watching an episode every Friday. Some of those I haven't seen in ages, so it'll be almost like getting a new episode each week. And I can remind myself of what episode certain neat little events and quotes happened in. Anyway, that's my plan to put off withdrawal symptoms.

I'm thinking of upgrading to a paid account. I want a really neat site like some of you guys and all the really neat themes are for paid accounts. What I really want is to put some SGA pics or maybe one picture at the top . . . I think. Okay, so I really don't know what I want other than something that is less boring than what I have and a place to post/archive my fiction - maybe some original fiction eventually (if I ever get it to do what I want it to do). My oldest daughter has a day off later this week and has promised to help (because we all know I'm too technology-challenged to figure this out on my own).

So - any thoughts or suggestions on the matter???????

Well, I finally got to watch Vegas last night, after hours of slaving over a frustrating computer for several days. The first file I downloaded gave me sound, but no picture. My daughter and I worked all afternoon and half the night Christmas day (after all the family festivities) trying to get whatever codec we were missing, all to no avail. I gave up and downloaded another version yesterday. You got it - picture with no sound. After much weeping and gnashing of teeth trying to fix that one (you think I'm exaggerating?), I gave up.

You guessed it. I loaded one version on my laptop and the other on the desktop and played them simultaneously. It kind of reminded me of the old Godzilla movies when I was a kid - the voices didn't exactly match the mouth movements. After swinging back and forth trying to fix it for a few minutes, I just got it close and quit watching their mouths. All in all, it worked pretty well. And thank you again, Kristen, for all your help and advice. Never would have gotten to see it without you.

I don't want to spoil anyone, so let me just say WOW, didn't see that one coming. And if there is anyone out there planning a detective show in the near future, you need to watch this guy in action. He would be perfect and I hear he's out of a job right now, or soon will be. Go, run, call him now.

If you like to read, I have a recommendation. I just finished Melissa's (kriadydragon) book Amrin The Dreamer and it's wonderful. A few short chapters into it, I couldn't put it down. It has magic and wizards and cruelty and kindness and excitement and mystery all woven together in a way that leaves you desperate to get to the end and see how everything works out. She made me smile and she made me cry. I'm so relieved to know how it ends and at the same time, I'm so sad that there is no more to read.

Awesome job, Melissa!!!

An interesting thing happened on the way back to my room after the pep rally today. Two girls decided to tear each other up right outside my door, just about the time I got there. Lucky me. Usually when you get the fighters pulled apart, they calm down a little. Not these girls. They kept going at each other, punching and pulling and throwing us the whole time. So we have two high school girls throwing a punchfest and three women teachers trying to keep them from killing one another.

It seemed to go on forever and I kept wondering where all the guy teachers and administrators were, because these girls kept throwing us off and going at it again. Turns out the kids were packed into such a tight ball around us watching that they couldn't get to us. When the calvary finally arrived, I was on the adrenalin rush from you know where. A few minutes later, when I could breathe again, I found myself trying to teach while getting my hands to stop shaking. I guess adrenalin really does mask pain, because I know that one girl pounded on my back and shoulders, but I didn't actually feel until I sat down during my prep period an hour and a half later. Yeah, I'll be hitting the ibuprofen tonight.

All I can say is THANK GOD IT'S FRIDAY!!!!!!

I have apparently taken leave of my senses. I just signed up for the sgahcchallenges Last Fic Writer Standing and I totally blame kristen999. I saw her little ad and went to check it out. I've been telling myself "you don't have time for this" for several days now, but insanity won out.

My reasoning is that the fics have to be short (translation = not much time) and it will be good for me to answer challenges in a few words (something I'm not exactly good at - the few words part). So good exercises for that stupid part of me that still wants to be a writer (can we say fantasy land?).

Anyway - if you haven't checked it out, you should go do that now. It looks like lots of fun both writing and reading.

sgahcchallenges site

Rules

Just came from reading a big pile of crap at Gateworld. Some mumbo jumbo about Atlantis going out on top and blah blah blah. How stupid do they think we are? Oh, and (shock, shock), by an amazing coincidence, just as Atlantis is dumped, Stargate Universe is picked up. I never thought there would be a Stargate anything I wouldn't watch, but this is it. I don't want to know what it's about or who's in it - I AIN'T WATCHING!!!! Partly because the "great powers" will just jerk it out from under the fans when they get attached to it and partly because I don't believe the timing indicates anything but that they dumped SGA for SGU. I think I'm finally tired enough of being jerked around to "just say no".

My only consolation (besides the hope of a possible movie - I know it's supposed to be a sure thing but . . . not very trusing right now) is the fact that some of my favorite authors are saying they will continue to write the fanfiction and my favorite sites are vowing to continue on. At least WE see the value and potential of the show, even if the people in control don't. LONG LIVE ATLANTIS!!!!

Yes, I am an obsessed freak. And I'm okay with that!!